1814 British Use Fireworks in The Battle of New Orleans

Andrew Jackson, with a hastily organized force, stopped the British attack upon New Orleans. In the struggle at the Chalmette battle site, even though heavily outnumbered, and with the British forces having far superior firepower, the scrappy Americans handily won the famous battle. During the battle the British used rockets as a scare tactic for the first time in Louisiana, in hopes of bewildering the ragtag troops. It apparently not only did not affect the aim of the American rifleman and cannoneers, but it inspired the further use of fireworks, including rockets, after the great victory. For several years, New Orleans celebrated the day when “the people of Louisiana first showed that they were willing to seal with their blood the compact that had already indissolubly bound them to the great American public”, as the Louisiana Gazette newspaper said on December 23, 1816.